Corn-hanger.



J. H. BROWN.

CORN HANGER.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 20, ISIS.

L 1i ,5%% Patented June 26, 1917.

m: NORRIS PETERS co FHom-urna, WASHINGTON n. c.

i earns rarnnr inn.

JAMES H. BROWN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR 'I-O JOHN AMANN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

CORN-HANGER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 26, 1917.

To-aZZ whomc't mag concern:

Be it known that 1, James H. 'BnowN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, "have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Corn-Hangers, of which the following isa specification.

invention relates to :corn hangers designed for use in connection with the testing of-earsof corn to :determine their value as seed. The object of my invention is to produce a device of this character which will be che'ap to manufacture, simple to use, and possesses great capacity in proportion to thespace occupied by it. Another object is to make the device expansible so that sections may be added, when necessary, to increase the capacity. Another object :is to provide a hanger, which, when .in use, will keep the ears of corn separated from each other so as to prevent them from heating and thereby becoming useless as seed.

I obtain .my objects by the construction illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a side elevation showing my hanger in use.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of the hanger in use, showing the relative positions which the ears of corn will assume during the test.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a modified form of upright or suspending rod, together with one of the hanger arms in position thereon.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the hanger arm shown in Fig. 3.

Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

The upright or suspending rod 1 is made preferably of wire of a sufficient gage to prevent it from bending materially when subjected to the weight of a couple of dozen ears of corn or so. This rod may be straight, as shown in Fig. 3, or it may be crimped as shown in Fig. 1. An open loop 2 is formed at each end of the rod, and these afford means whereby the rod may be hung up on a nail or other support and may in turn form a support for a similar rod suspended from its lower end, as indicated in Fig. 1.

The hanger arms 3 consist preferably of pieces of wire three or four inches in length, or long enough to hold an ear of corn. At the inner end of the arms are eyes 4 which are wvairpedz; that is, are bent into the form of a helix, which, when the arm is positioned, encircles the suspending upright for one full turn or so. This normation of the inner end of the arm produces two results: it prevents the arm from moving longitudinally, while permitting it to rotate, it forced to do so; it also produces a leverage which holds the arm horizontal and at the same time causes the eye to grip the up right and thereby prevent the arm from slipping downward. The gripping action varies with the weight carried by the arm, the greater the weight the greater being the gripping action. In consequence, the larger ars have no more tendency to cause slippage of the arm than the smaller ears-in fact, the arms readily keep their position upon the rod whether loaded with large ears or free from any load at all. The gripping actionset up asaresult of this construction of the eye is so efficient that if ordinary commercial wire is employed for making the upright and arms, it is unnecessary to crimp the uprights. However, in some cases, crimping is preferred, among other things for stiffening the wire, and, hence, I have illustrated the upright in both formations.

In operation, when the operator wishes to test some cars of corn, he first hangs up one of the suspending rods or uprights upon a nail or other convenient object and then in serts the outer end of the hanger arms l0ngitudinally into the ears, preferably from the butts; then, after taking a few kernels from the respective ears, in order to make the germinating tests, and suitably identifying the ears either by their position upon the upright or by tagging or other marking, he attaches the arms by simply passing the eye around the upright from the side, whereupon, upon releasing his hold upon the ear, the car will maintain its position upon the upright and stand out horizontally in the manner illustrated.

It is well known with those who make corn seedL tests that if the kernels of one ear are left in contact with the kernels of another ear, the contacting kernels will lose their germinating power. Contact is therefore to be avoided, and with my hanger this is readily possible, for by not forcing the ears quite up to the eyes of the hanger arms, and, subsequently, distributing the ears angularly around the rod as indicated,

for example, in Fig. 2, the ears will all remain at a good distance from each other and permit the free circulation of air between them.

My corn hanger is sectional or expansible in the sense that a number of rods or uprights may be suspended one from another, it being unnecessary that they should be held against any swinging movement or lateral vibration. One of my hangers when loaded, or partially loaded, may be permitted to swing from side to side without in any way disturbing the arms or causing them to slip off of the upright. The loops 2 at the bottom of the upright form an additional safeguard, for even if sudden and continued vibration should finally cause the arms to slip, said arms would be retained by the loop, and, in addition, the eye of each arm would form a stop or spacer for the eye above; hence, there is no reasonable possibility of the arms slipping, but even if they should slip, they cannot leave the upright.

It will be noted by reference to Figs. 1 and 3 that the turns of the eye or loop are farther apart than the diameter of the upright rod. The result is that the arms may be applied or detached by moving them toward the rod, from the side, and do not need to be slipped over the end of the rod. This is of great advantage as it enables the user to remove any one of the arms without disturbing the others. This would not be the case if the arms could be removed only by slipping them over the end of the upright.

Having thus described my invention, what.

I laim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is r g 1. A corn hanger consisting of an upright and a wire arm adapted to be inserted longitudinally into an ear of corn for supporting it, said arm having an eye encircling said upright, said eye being downwardly warped or helicizecl to afford a leverage for holding the arm horizontal and causing to maintain being bent to encircle the rod for approXimately 360 degrees, the end of the eye being bent downward to engage the rod at a point below the level of the hanger arm to thereby produce a leverage for holding the arm approximately horizontal and gripping the rod for the purpose of enabling the arm to main tain its position vertically upon the rod.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

JAMES H. BROWN.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

